Government Debt

BEIJING (Reuters) - China's National Audit Office will conduct an audit of all government debt at the request of China's State Council or cabinet, it said in a statement on Sunday, underlining concern over rising debt levels in the world's second biggest economy. The audit office, responsible for overseeing state finances, made the announcement in a one-sentence item on its website, but gave no details on the audit. The official People's Daily newspaper said separately on its...

(Reuters) - World financial markets became reacquainted with fear last week, and even if it was short-lived, the ructions in some riskier assets looked to some like a precursor to a much rougher ride down the road. Concerns that Portugal's largest listed bank, Banco Espirito Santo was badly exposed to its owners' accounting problems raised eyebrows in Europe and the U.S., getting investors to ask whether there were more shoes to drop in European banking. ...

The U.S. government debt now stands at $17 trillion, more than double what it was a decade ago. It's still expanding, as the Treasury pays out more than it takes in, and the shortfall is expected to grow over the next decade. So it's deeply gratifying to learn that Americans are "highly concerned" about the problem. That finding comes from the latest monthly Fiscal Confidence Index, compiled by the Peter G. Peterson Foundation. "Fully eight in 10 voters (81 percent) say that the president and...

BEIJING (Reuters) - China's economy probably steadied in the second quarter with annual growth holding firm at 7.4 percent, a Reuters poll showed, suggesting that a recovery is taking hold as a flurry of government stimulus measures kick in. All but three of the 21 analysts polled by Reuters predicted that growth either stabilised or edged up between April and June, reinforcing the view that authorities have successfully arrested a cooldown with...

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Banks in Italy and Spain stuffed their coffers with government bonds last month, European Central Bank data showed on Monday, in the latest sign they have been using ultra-cheap three-year ECB funds to stock up on sovereign debt. Italian banks now hold more government debt than lenders in any other country in the euro zone, and Monday's data may add to concerns that banks there and in Spain are becoming ever more wedded to the fate of their own...

The U.S. government debt now stands at $17 trillion, more than double what it was a decade ago. It's still expanding, as the Treasury pays out more than it takes in, and the shortfall is expected to grow over the next decade. So it's deeply gratifying to learn that Americans are "highly concerned" about the problem. That finding comes from the latest monthly Fiscal Confidence Index, compiled by the Peter G. Peterson Foundation. "Fully eight in 10 voters (81 percent) say that the president and...

BEIJING (Reuters) - China's state auditor warned on Monday that debt levels among local governments are rising and the financial burdens and risks are not being properly managed, adding to concerns over the health of the country's financial system. The National Audit Office, responsible for overseeing state finances, said in a report that the total debt at 36 local governments had risen 13 percent to stand at 3.85 trillion yuan ($627.70 billion) at the end of 2012 from...

BEIJING (Reuters) - China is likely to meet its economic growth target of 7.5 percent this year, the World Bank said on Friday, but must persevere with fiscal and financial sector reforms to deal with the root cause of its debt problems. "The prospect of growth falling below the government target will likely trigger accommodative fiscal and monetary policies," the Washington-based development bank said in its latest assessment of China's economy. "These measures should help...

DARMSTADT, Germany (Reuters) - The upcoming European bank stress tests should address banks' holdings of sovereign debt, European Central Bank Governing Council member Jens Weidmann said on Wednesday. The ECB will run a series of checks on banks' balance sheets before it will take up responsibility as the euro zone's banking supervisor late next year and Weidmann said the tests would be a success if afterwards trust returned to the sector. "And this...

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian public spending that is classified as secret will nearly double by 2016 to reach a quarter of all expenditures, the IMF said on Monday, urging more disclosure and analysis of budget risks. The International Monetary Fund also said financial reporting on the public sector - which accounts for more than two-thirds of Russia's $2-trillion economy - was not comprehensive enough. The category includes government entities and...

MADRID (Reuters) - Spain may recapitalize Bankia with Spanish government bonds in return for shares in the bank which last week asked for rescue funding of 19 billion euros ($24 billion), a government source said on Sunday. Bankia could use the sovereign paper as collateral to get cash from the European Central Bank, forcing the ECB to get involved with restructuring Spain's banking sector, laid low by lending to property developers in a boom that ended in 2008. ...

TOKYO (Reuters) - Bank of Japan board member Takehiro Sato proposed changing the central bank's assessment of prices to say that risks are tilted somewhat to the downside, highlighting skepticism within the board that Japan would be able to decisively beat off deflation in a year's time. The minutes of the April 30 policy meeting released on Monday showed Sato had also called for changing the wording of the central bank's price target, suggesting a loosening of...

BEIJING (Reuters) - Forced evictions in China, a major source of social discontent, have risen significantly in the past two years as local officials and property developers colluded to seize and sell land to pay off government debt, Amnesty International said on Thursday. Property disputes in a country where the government legally owns all land are often violent and have led to growing social instability, one of the challenges facing a new generation of...

SAO PAULO (Reuters) - Aberdeen Asset Management Plc, Europe's largest independent money manager, expects to complete within weeks the sale of a fund investing in Brazilian stocks and government debt, two executives said on Tuesday. Assets in the fundo multimercado, as the vehicle is known in Brazil, will be split evenly between domestic stocks and government debt, using the domestic IBX stock index and the interbank lending rate CDI as benchmarks, respectively,...

MILAN (Reuters) - Italian banks are near saturation point after two years spent frantically buying their own government's bonds, forcing the Treasury to find alternative investors at home and abroad to finance a 2-trillion euro debt. Lenders' ability to soak up yet more Italian sovereign debt depends largely on the European Central Bank - which in turn says Italy is crucial to the fate of the entire euro zone. In the coming year the ECB will make strict health checks...

Killing the planet Will we heed the warnings about climate change in the White House's "National Climate Assessment"? No. Even most environmentalists refuse to acknowledge that we must radically reduce our consumption of energy and material goods in order to survive. The sickening truth is that we'd rather kill the planet (and ourselves) than reduce our "standard of living. " — George Ochsenfeld , Monee Climate reality Science isn't going to wait for people to...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. Treasuries yields fell to six-month lows on Wednesday, breaking out of a recent range, as expectations the European Central Bank will cut interest rates sparked a global fixed-income rally. The ECB is preparing a package of policy options for its June meeting, including cuts in all its interest rates, and targeted measures aimed at boosting lending to small- and mid-sized firms (SMEs). A dovish ECB has helped hold down yields on German and U.S....

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Allianz , Europe's biggest insurer, has begun applying a notional charge in its accounts to reflect the risk of holding government bonds as investments, drawing a lesson from the euro zone debt crisis that may prompt others to follow suit. Government bonds, which account for the lion's share of insurers' investments, are treated as risk free by regulators. But the fallacy of that position became clear when the specter of default threatened a number of...